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Saturday, February 28, 2009

So...... this month the Daring Bakers Challenge is back to the sweet side of things......and chocolate to boot. I found this recipe to be quite intriguing due to its very limited ingredient list, and have been pretty pumped to make it. On the up side for you gluten free people this could be right up your alley.....and it's most certainly right up mine. I served mine with fresh vanilla whipped cream and Huckleberry Sauce made from the berries I picked here during the summer. I wanted to try something a little different than the obvious choice of raspberry......and I just happened to have lots of Huckleberries in the freezer.

The challenge requested us to make ice cream to go along with it, but I have opted not to as at -35 C there is no way anyone could convince me to make ice cream, and it's also something I make every summer so it's not really much of a challenge. Plus I'm going to feel quite guilty enough eating this without the added calories of the ice cream thanks very much!

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

So.....Let's get on with the show....this is it!

So what did I think?? Well if I make this again I would use some portion of milk chocolate....maybe 1/2 milk and 1/2 semi sweet......instead of all semi sweet. I found the recipe to be not quite sweet enough. While I am a chocolate fan, I found I could not eat a very large piece of this, and found it needed a generous helping of whipping cream and Huckleberry Sauce. I made mine in a 8 inch heart shaped pan with a removeable bottom, and although I worried that it would leak (as it was not a spring form pan), there was no need for worry. In fact I had enough left over batter to make two individual servings as well. The recipe yielded about 8 servings.

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Ingredients1 Vanilla Pod (or substitute with vanilla extract)300ml / ½ pint / 1 ¼ cups Semi Skimmed Milk – in the U.S. this is 2% fat (or use fresh full fat milk that is pasteurised and homogenised {as opposed to canned or powdered}). Dharm used whole milk.4 large egg yolks75g / 3oz / 6 tbsp caster sugar {superfine sugar can be achieved in a food processor or use regular granulated sugar}5ml / 1 tsp corn flour {cornstarch}300ml / ½ pint / 1 ¼ cups Double Cream (48% butter fat) {in the U.S. heavy cream is 37% fat){you can easily increase your cream's fat content by heating 1/4 cup of heavy cream with 3 Tbs of butter until melted - cool to room temperature and add to the heavy cream as soon as whisk marks appear in the cream, in a slow steady stream, with the mixer on low speed. Raise speed and continue whipping the cream) or use heavy cream the difference will be in the creaminess of the ice cream.

1. Using a small knife slit the vanilla pod lengthways. Pour the milk into a heavy based saucepan, add the vanilla pod and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and leave for 15 minutes to allow the flavours to infuseLift the vanilla pod up. Holding it over the pan, scrape the black seeds out of the pod with a small knife so that they fall back into the milk. SET the vanilla pod aside and bring the milk back to the boil.2. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and corn-flour in a bowl until the mixture is thick and foamy. 3. Gradually pour in the hot milk, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a gentle hear, stirring all the time4. When the custard thickens and is smooth, pour it back into the bowl. Cool it then chill.5. By Hand: Whip the cream until it has thickened but still falls from a spoon. Fold it into the custard and pour into a plastic tub or similar freeze-proof container. Freeze for 6 hours or until firm enough to scoop, beating it twice (during the freezing process – to get smoother ice cream or else the ice cream will be icy and coarse)By Using and Ice Cream Maker: Stir the cream into the custard and churn the mixture until thick (follow instructions on your ice cream maker)

I noticed the badge for this Pay It Forward on Aunt Pitty Pat's blog while over checking on a swap. A few days later I figured out what the deal is........and here it is...

I need three people to sign up to play. To each of these three participants, I will send out a handmade gift within the next 12 months. In turn each of these people agrees to 'Pay It Forward' and send out a handmade something to three other people....and so on....and so on. There is a lengthy sending window in that you will have 1 year to send something to your three sendees. So I'm hoping to be able to find 3 people who would like to receive something from me. Any takers?? If you are interested, leave a comment on this post with a way that I can contact you to get your email address and mailing address.I'm so looking forward to making something just for you:).......so come on and play....please!

I also should mention that there is a give away over at Live Love Laugh where she will be giving away 3 cute as a button handmade fabric flowers that would be super sweet on a denim jacket or on a purse or tote. There's only another day left to enter so don't delay...go check it out!

Friday, February 27, 2009

As you may know....I collect tea cups and saucers. Now, I easily have more than can fit in my cupboard so I reserve purchasing to ones I really love (for what ever reason) and ones that are such a good deal that I might put them away for a cup and saucer swap. These two cups are examples of me buying for a bit of both. I really like this shape (corset style) and it is usually made by Aynsley which is a good quality China company and in this neck of the woods, a little hard to come by. So when I see one here for a good price it is quite tempting. Such was the case with each of these cups and saucers they were each around $15 give or take a dollar. (Which is a GOOD price for one of these) But....one had a crack I didn't notice until I got home........and the others I checked over VERY well due to my previous experience. Generally speaking it is a good practice to ping both the cup and saucer to listen if it has a nice ring. (To do this, balance the piece in your open palm, and give the edge a little flick with your finger nail...being careful not to drop it of course) If it doesn't make a nice ring......and instead it has a dull thud....you know to look for a flaw. Today this practice served me well as I came very close to purchasing a cup and saucer with a hairline crack that was almost imperceptible......but it didn't ring right so I knew there was something wrong. When I opted not to buy it, the shop owner put it back on the shelf, which I don't think she should have done. As far as value of china goes.....a hairline crack renders a piece of china worthless......unless you want to use it as a craft project....which is something I have set aside many flawed cups and saucers for. I also keep a few flawed pieces around for using at the kids tea party, so if one should break it would not make me cry. Hopefully the next person to pick up the cup and saucer notices the crack before deciding to buy it! If you expand the photo you can see the crack in the handle of the cup in the front. It's almost at the bottom where it joins the cup.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

I have never tried to make Anzac Biscuits before so this was a new one for me. I had noticed the recipe for Anzac Biscuits many years ago in my Australian Women's Weekly Beautiful Biscuits cookbook, and never been tempted by them because I am not really a big fan of oatmeal.......well in cookies anyway. Often oatmeal cookies are too muffiny in texture for my liking so this recipe never made the starting gate for me. As part of my Kiwianna challenge, I decided that this would have to be one of the 'must make' recipes as it seems to be a traditional Australian and New Zealand cookie. Biscuit....I mean. So with friends coming to play after school, this provided the perfect opportunity to test them out.

I found the recipe unusual in it's lack of eggs, and low flour requirement and needed to add a touch more wet ingredients to make the dough stay together....but all in all a pretty easy make. I did find the estimated cooking time to be way too long for my oven, but I baked them using convection and thought I had taken enough time off the bake time already.....but I see I should have taken a little more off. A little more 'golden', but not yet burned. The batch size was small making exactly 20 cookies not counting the dough I ate....which was good BTW!

The feedback from the kids was positive as the batch is now gone........We'll definitely try these again:) They were quite chewy almost like a macaroon, due to the coconut I expect, and I may try a batch again tomorrow to improve upon the cooking time.

Mix together flour, sugar, coconut and rolled oats. Melt butter and golden syrup. Dissolve baking soda in the boiling water and add to butter and golden syrup. Stir butter mixture into the dry ingredients. Place level tablespoonsful of mixture onto cold greased trays. Bake at 180C for about 15 minutes or until golden. Next time I'll focus more on the 'until golden' and less on the recommended baking time.

Monday, February 23, 2009

I've just passed the month and a half mark of being unemployed and finally I had a day where I had time to get some housework done and have supper ready at the appropriate time. I was actually amazed at how busy you can keep yourself when you should have nothing but free time. Now, hopefully, I will get busy with the task of taking control of the state of my housework. Already I am starting to feel freaked out about the possibility of returning to work sooner than I had anticipated.

While sorting and purging in Ike's playroom (we'll see if he even notices things are missing) I collected 2 full bags of toys and books that never seem to get used. I have a SERIOUS problem throwing things out and in general always feel better if I can find a new home for things. So.......today I took a trip to a new thrift shop in my neighbourhood to drop off Ike's...unmentionables:( And as luck would have it, (you've probably guessed this).... I found a few things I had to have. There must be some kind of cosmic balance which must be kept in the house that keeps stopping me from ever being clutter free. Entropy is king in my closed system........that much is certain. Perhaps I should just go with it?? On the up side......I did drop off much more than I brought back.......and you can NEVER have too many cups and saucers can you???

Sunday, February 22, 2009

A few years back I had seen a recipe for making homemade lemonade that used the entire lemon pulverized in a blender. My initial search has not yet uncovered this book, but eventually I will find it again. I ended up searching on the Internet for other blender recipes for ideas and after some trial and error, this is what I came up with. We found that making the lemonade and including the peel and all worked perfectly fine, BUT there is a slight but detectable bitter taste from including the pith which can become even more pronounced as the drink sits. By removing the pith and still using the zest of one of the lemons you get the very bright citrus flavour, but not the bitterness associated with using the pith. Now that summer is just a few more months away, I'm all practiced up on making lemonade....from scratch that is. This one is pretty close to the taste of making it with frozen concentrate.....so if you don't have access to frozen concentrate, give this a try. You may need to adjust the amount of sugar to your liking as different lemons may have higher or lower sweetness levels.

This topped off our weekend breakfast of buttermilk pancakes, maple sausages and baked beans. These pancakes are made from the recipe I posted about here. Although I've written the recipe using vinegar and milk, the original called for buttermilk....which I normally do not have on hand. So just leave out the vinegar and substitute the milk with buttermilk if you find you have some buttermilk to use up....as I did from making these.

Wash all lemons well. Using a lemon zester, set aside the zest of one lemon. Cut lemons into 8 wedges each. Remove and discard seeds. Slide a sharp knife between fruit and peel to separate fruit from white pith and peel. Discard peels.

Put fruit from 2 lemons, zest from one lemon, sugar, and 1/3 cup of cold water into a blender and blend until smooth. At this point you can strain the blender contents through a sieve (it looks better when strained) and discard the pulp, or you can leave the juice unsieved and add the remaining 3 additional cups of water to it. Serve cold with lemon slices and ice.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Wow it's been one year of blogging so far. It really makes me feel like I should learn more about blogging. I got going on this blogging trip with no knowledge of blogging at all and not much has changed. I really need to devote a little more time to investigate more blogging options. So many widget and gadgets that I know nothing about....... Well year one was fun.....hopefully year two will be even better:)

With last weeks PAC meeting out of the way, it should have left me with plenty of time to deal with the things I have let slide......like housework and leave me with even extra time to do something for me. You'd think.....wouldn't you?? Time here just seems to evaporate as soon as it is freed up:( Well it's the weekend now and time to do some fun things.....I hope! I'm on a little mission now to locate a recipe I came across a few years ago. It was not in the book I thought it was in......but I'll track it down and try to make some yummy homemade lemonade. (I found a similar one, but it needs some tweaking)......be back with that recipe soon!

Well here is a little bit of what I've been up to. Since I like to bring baking to each PAC meeting, I am nearing the end of of my repertoire of favourite baked goods. I figured I hadn't brought these little lovelies yet so I gave them a whirl again. I personally do not like cake donuts, so they are not my favourites. I do however have lots of people say they like them, so I think they are quite good.....or people are very polite. So if you like cake donuts, these taste very much like the classic cinnamon sugar coated cake donut, and if you make them in a mini muffin pan, like I do, they end up looking very much like donut holes. This recipe comes from Taunton's Fine Cooking Magazine #42 from January 2001. I remembered as I was making them that I usually make a half recipe...too late....I made a billion of the little guys and was forced to push them on the neighbours.....oh well:)

Muffins- Put a rack in the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 350F. In a stand mixer or a large bowl, cream the butter and the sugar very well. Probably 3-5 minutes. The mixture will become pale yellow and the grains of sugar will become less obvious. Beat in the eggs one at a time, until just mixed in. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Combine the milk and the buttermilk. With a wooden spoon gently mix in 1/4 of the dry mixture, then mix in a third of the wet just until mixed. Repeat ending with the last dry portion. Mix until combined and smooth but do not over mix. Grease and flour a standard sized muffin tin. Scoop enough batter into each cup so that the top of the batter is even with the rim of the cup, about a 1/2 cup. (A #16 ice cream scoop gives the perfect amount) Bake the muffins until firm to the touch, about 30-35 minutes. I use a mini muffin pan with a small scoop and bake about 15 minutes.

To coat- Melt the butter for the dipping mixture. Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl. When the muffins are just cool enough to handle, remove them from the pan, dip them into or brush them with melted butter, and then roll them into the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Here is the recipe for the bath bombs Ike made the other day. I first tried this recipe about 5 years ago and gave these to friends and relatives for Christmas. It is really easy and is a project that kids can do with supervision. It can take a bit of trial and error to get the amount of water right, and it is always best to error on the side of too little rather than too much.

Combine baking soda, and citric acid in a bowl and mix well. Add food colouring (if using) start with 6-8 drops and work in with gloved hands. You can do this in a large ziploc bag squeezing and working the colouring through the powder just as you would when colouring sugar. Do the same when adding the fragrance or essential oils. Once the mixture is homogeneous begin to spray water with a fine mist sprayer onto the surface of the powder. Stir the mixture with your hands to bring dry powder to the surface and spray some more. You will have sprayed enough when you can squeeze a small amount of the mixture in your hand and the powder stays together in a clump. Once this happens, DO NOT spray any more. Pack the mixture into molds and press in very hard. The more firmly they are packed, the better! They will be stronger the more firmly packed they are, and will be less likely to prematurely crumble. Release from molds onto waxed paper lined cookie sheets and let dry for 8 hours.

Note:In my batch I used these ingredients, but you can use what ever you like.

This combination smells like something you would find at lush and has a bright citrus and floral smell. The most time consuming part or the entire process is working the food colouring evenly through. You could likely do this in a blender, but I would NOT add the fragrance oils or essential oils in a blender unless that blender is solely used for craft purposed and not used for food preparation. You can make individual balls by hand (like making snow balls) but you must pack them very tight. You can buy actual bath bomb molds (ball type) at some hobby stores and I have seen them at times in Walmart. But muffin pans works very well, especially the cute seasonal pans Wilton makes. I have used the snowman muffin pans from Wilton which are very cute for Christmas time. They have cute heart pans for Valentines as well. The baking soda is very inexpensive when purchased at the bulk food section of the grocery store and they should also have citric acid available in the pharmacy section. If the citric acid is not available there most health food stores would have some, although I think the pharmacy might be less expensive. Essential oils are available at health food stores and sometimes in the pharmacy section of the grocery store in the homeopathic section. If you decide you really love making bath bombs and want to buy large quantities of essential oils you are better off looking on line.

As I eluded to earlier if you add too much water to the mix, it will become sticky and more difficult to work with. Also and most importantly it will probably stick in the molds. If this happens you can pack them into cookie cutters and you will more easily be able to push them through after packing them in hard. So err on the dry side, as long as it will clump when you squeeze it together, you are good to go. If you pack them in and they won't stay together, you can always dump it back into the bowl and spray more water.

Friday, February 13, 2009

We are getting ready for Valentine's Day here and there sure is a lot going on. We had a Cupcake Walk planned for my sons school yesterday and a Girls Night Out Social event planned at the school tonight. That coupled with the usual Valentine's Day preparations makes for a very busy week. The cupcake walk went well and was (I think) a lot of fun for the kids. I had not taken part in one before so it was a learning experience for me. We set up three circles on the gym floor with 25 numbers in each circle. We filled each spot with a kid and played music while they walked around or danced around the circle. When the music stopped each child stood on their number and we drew 10 numbers as winners. The 30 winners then marched off to the cupcake tables to choose their cupcake prize. Those who did not get their number drawn stayed in the circles and the 30 empty spots were filled. And so on, and so on. We had a special cd made of popular music that the kids would like (edited for inappropriate language) and we used the Cuppy Cake Song for the kindergarten classes. Too adorable! We had an amazing amount of cupcakes donated to the walk and received around 800 cupcakes!Ike just had to make these little fondant bees, so I made these cupcakes to go with the bee theme. They turned out pretty cute I think:) And they were pretty tasty too! For his teachers gift, Ike saved one of the bee cupcakes for her and we put a little pick in it with a sign saying 'bee mine', and we did a little crafting project too. We made bath bombs since they are so quick and easy that kids can actually do it with a bit of supervision.Now I have just a few hours to tidy up and get moving on to Girls Night Out at the School. We have a collection of over 25 vendors (like Pampered Chef, Avon, Stampin Up, Close to My Heart) and few locally owned businesses setting up tables to sell their wares for last minute Valentine Shopping. Many neighbourhood businesses were kind enough to provide us with a loads of door prizes and we have advertised the event to the entire community. It will be a surprise to all of us to see what kind of turn out we get. Busy, busy, busy:) Gotta Run!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

I often buy blade steak (aka chuck steak) to make stew with. I don't often purchase pre-cut stew meat since I like to see where it came from myself. I had a large piece left over that I threw in the freezer after making some stew last week and I wanted to use up this left over piece. I remember my gramma used to make my uncle a stove top braised steak in a tomato sauce......and I remember liking it as a kid. Gramma would have probably chosen a round steak because it would have been cheaper.....but I like the blade steak and blade roast since it has better flavour and will not be nearly as dry as the round. I don't think I buy round for anything but making jerky actually.... I tried to imaging what gramma would have put into her braised steak as she cooked it in her quaint farm house kitchen. She had the cutest little kitchen with battleship linoleum flooring in blue and grey squares, and one of those big white enamel farm house sinks with the huge drain plugs, and the built in draining board. Her cupboards were painted white and contained a life's history in china and glassware.....each piece having it's story. There were adorable little swanky swig glasses with bustling Betsy eavesdropping on the neighbours, a handsome Father's mug or was it a Mother's mug I cannot remember for certain now........and my very favourite dishes. She had odds and ends of an awfully pretty Royal Winton Ascot shaped set that I chose to use every time I had a snack at grammas house. Those dishes were faded from 2 generations of use and are I'm sure, long since gone. One day while on Ebay, I happened to find some pieces quite by accident.........and I just had to have them. The teapot shown in this post is one of the first items in this pattern that I bought, and I still look for others every now and again.

Anyway, this is my take on grammas braised steak. I cut my meat into stew size chunks just to speed the cooking time.

Cut steak into bite sized pieces and season with salt and pepper. Brown pieces over medium heat in a few tbsp of vegetable oil in a heavy dutch oven. Remove browned meat to a side dish, and add roughly chopped celery and onions to the pot. Brown vegetables over medium heat, about 10 minutes. Add minced garlic and cook 1 minute. Add remaining ingredients , return meat to the pot and bring to a simmer. Put in 325 F oven ,without a cover ,for two hours or until meat is tender. Remove pot every 20 minutes to stir. Your must do this or the meat on top will dry out. The sauce will reduce as it cooks, and there will be a few tbsp of fat to spoon out and discard when it is done. For a quick side we used Knorr Sidekicks Mexican Rice and some steamed asparagus with lemon butter and Asiago cheese. So there you have it...supper for under $10 . It got the thumbs up here so we'll be having it again.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

I had been craving this meal for a few weeks now and at last I did it. I first had Spaetzle while visiting friends down in Texas. I was intrigued by the little noodle and went out and bought myself a spaetzle maker right away. It kind of looks like a grater with a feed chute attached. Spaetzle originates from regions in Germany, Austria, Switzerland etc. It is a dough made from egg, flour, salt, and milk or water. The dough may be made thick enough to cut or more like a batter and formed using a maker like I have or something like a potato ricer. It is very very quick, easy and inexpensive to make and makes for a nice easy side dish any day of the week. It should be served right away which is not difficult since it only takes minutes to cook. I always make them when I make Schnitzel....so this was our meal. Not super low in fat.....but a comfort food that is pretty darned kid friendly. Sorry the vegetable does not offer a lot of colour contrast....but it was quick and it's one of Ike's favourites!

You'll need 3 pie plates or similar dishes for holding the breadcrumbs, flour, and egg wash. Season bread crumbs with all seasonings and set aside in one of the pie plates. Pound each chop flat with meat mallet until each one is a little less than 1/4 inch thick. Dredge each chop into the flour to cover both sides with a light coating. Shake any excess away. Next dip into the egg wash to cover all floured areas. Finally lay in the breadcrumb mixture patting crumbs onto all surfaces. Lay each coated chop on to a platter in a single layer covering with wax paper if necessary to start the next layer. Let set in refrigerator until ready to cook. It's good to give them a chance cool and let the crumb coating set up for at least 30 minutes. When you are ready to cook them, fill a frying pan with a little more than 1/4 inch of oil, and heat to medium to medium high heat. Cook on one side until the bottom is golden....about 2-3 minutes, then turn and cook the other side. Remove from pan and set on paper towel to absorb excess oil and keep in warm oven while cooking remaining chops. Serve with brown gravy. Traditionally I think this dish should use veal but I've always been happy with the way the pork turned out.....so that's what I use.

Mix all together into a thick batter. Let sit one hour. If refrigerated, let come to room temperature before boiling. Set spaetzle maker over pot of rapidly boiling salted water. Fill hopper with batter. Slide hopper back and forth until all batter has run through the maker. Boil for 2 minutes after the noodles rise to the surface of the water. Pour through a colander to drain. Set aside in bowl with a tbsp of butter and toss. Also nice tossed with chopped onion fried in butter.